Latest IHC Decision Welcomed

Latest IHC Decision Welcomed

The Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota has welcomed another decision by the Employment Court that has confirmed the right of disability support workers to be paid the minimum wage of $12.50 for every hour on duty during sleepovers.

The case involved disability support worker Phil Dickson. He works at an IHC community house that is home to five service users with intellectual disabilities.

As part of his job Mr Dickson does 'sleepover' shifts from 10pm to 7am for which he's paid $34. This amounts to $3.77 an hour, less than a third of the minimum adult wage of $12.50 an hour.

Mr Dickson is allowed to sleep during the shift but is frequently disturbed and often has to get up to provide support for the service users living in the community house.

In July the Court decided that being required to stay on the employer's premises during the night to support people with intellectual disabilities was "work" and should attract the minimum wage. The court described the responsibilities he has during sleepovers as 'weighty' and 'critical to the business of the employer.'

However, IHC, the National Residential Intellectual Disability Providers, Business New Zealand and the Department of Labour put forward the argument that if the requirement to pay $12.50 an hour was averaged over a pay period employers could offset higher paid periods for those where rates below the minimum hourly rate were paid.

Service and Food Workers Union National Secretary John Ryall said the latest Court decision was another step forward in recognising the invisible work that disability support workers carried out.

"If the court had decided that it was possible to average the minimum wage this would have been a major setback not just for disability support workers but for hundreds of thousands of low-income workers, who would have needed endless calculations to decide whether they were being paid illegally or not."

ENDS